Elevating a portion of a vehicle often involves using a jack. Typically, the jack is placed under a portion of the frame of the automobile and the jack is slowly raised until a platform on the jack engages the frame of the automobile. Thereafter, a user uses the principle of leverage to elevate a portion of the frame.
Sometimes a vehicle needs to remain supported while a user repairs a portion of the vehicle that is only accessible from the bottom. Most standard floor jacks are movable, so that the jack may be readily repositioned at different portions of the frame. As such, a vehicle supported solely by a jack without some type of loading device may be unstable and unsafe to work underneath. When hydraulic jacks are used, there additionally exists an ongoing potential for failure of the jack during operation. Since the jack has moving parts, each moving part is subject to wear. In particular, the hydraulic system is subject to deterioration in the cylinder, the valves, and any other parts of the jack that are directly used to support the vehicle during lifting. Due to the potential for movement and especially for hydraulic failure of the jack, floor jacks are generally not intended to be used as a sole support means for items such as automobiles. Instead, a user may place one or more jack stand under the frame and lower the floor jack so that the vehicle is supported on the jack stand instead of the jack itself while working beneath the vehicle.
Jack stands are intended to replace floor jacks that have previously raised the object to a desired height. With older model vehicles, the user would simply jack up a portion of the vehicle using the frame as a contact point, and place the desired jack stand underneath the frame of the vehicle. However, as unibody construction has become more prevalent on vehicles, there are now fewer points with which jack stands can be used. The typical unibody automobile provides specific reinforced locations for the use of a floor jack. For example, on many automobiles, only a single reinforced vehicle contact point for a jack is defined along the side of many unibody automobile designs.
A jack stand and a jack typically cannot support a vehicle at the same location on the frame because they have individual and separate support structures. This can cause a problem in the unibody design where a manufacturer designates only certain contact locations. Accordingly, while a jack stand is usually more stable than a jack, the jack stand cannot support the vehicle at the same point that is occupied by the jack. As a result, the jack stand often must be placed a considerable distance away from the jacking location in order to find a portion of the undercarriage that is compatible with the top of the support platform. This causes a situation in which a higher jacking elevation may be required to accommodate the jack stand location and/or causes a scenario in which the jack stand is placed at an unsuitable location.